Is there any good(& fast) way to reconcile chef environment changes done in
the Chef web management interface like workstations moved to different
environments, cookbook version locks, etc… with a chef workstation, so
that the chef workstation directories and files are updated with the
workstation moves, cookbook versioning, etc…?

Is there any good(& fast) way to reconcile chef environment changes done in the Chef web management interface like workstations moved to different environments, cookbook version locks, etc… with a chef workstation, so that the chef workstation directories and files are updated with the workstation moves, cookbook versioning, etc…?

Eric Feldhusenknife download can do this, provided you’re using json instead of ruby format for environments, roles, etc. Generally it’s best to pick one means of updating data on your server and sticking to it, though.

So, if my current environment, nodes, and roles directories are blends of
ruby and json, would the best practice be to 'knife download" the json
format files and just do a one-to-one replacement of them?

Is there any good(& fast) way to reconcile chef environment changes done
in the Chef web management interface like workstations moved to different
environments, cookbook version locks, etc… with a chef workstation, so
that the chef workstation directories and files are updated with the
workstation moves, cookbook versioning, etc…?

Eric Feldhusen

knife download can do this, provided you’re using json instead of ruby
format for environments, roles, etc. Generally it’s best to pick one means
of updating data on your server and sticking to it, though.

you can. but if you change environments frequently (which i do, specially
in dev_* environments ), you might want to read them, and in that case .rb
versions shine. also, rb versions will have less content, as the ruby
versions dont require the defaults, class types etc. you can do more
advance stuff, like creating nested environments with little scripting, and
for such extensions rb formats are easy to deal with (very minute though).

in general , i find them more concise and readable.

that said, we too use the json format. but i think we should restrict it to
backup/restore tools, where machines does the job. But in workstation, we
deal with the git repo rb files would have been very helpful.

So, if my current environment, nodes, and roles directories are blends of
ruby and json, would the best practice be to 'knife download" the json
format files and just do a one-to-one replacement of them?

Is there any good(& fast) way to reconcile chef environment changes done
in the Chef web management interface like workstations moved to different
environments, cookbook version locks, etc… with a chef workstation, so
that the chef workstation directories and files are updated with the
workstation moves, cookbook versioning, etc…?

Eric Feldhusen

knife download can do this, provided you’re using json instead of ruby
format for environments, roles, etc. Generally it’s best to pick one means
of updating data on your server and sticking to it, though.